2003 Tehran City Council election

2006 Islamic City Council of Tehran election

28 February 2003
15 City Council seats 8 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	12%
Alliance Conservatives Reformists Seats won 14 / 15 0 / 15 Seat change 14 15 Alliance Nationalist-Religious Freedom-Seekers Coalition Seats won 0 / 15 0 / 15
Chairman before election Vacant Elected Chairman Mehdi Chamran Conservatives

An election to the Islamic City Council of Tehran took place on 28 February 2003, along with the local elections nationwide.

The results showed a victory for the conservative Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, that gained 14 out of 15 seats, and a massive defeat for all of the Reformist groupings, as well as the Council of Nationalist-Religious Activists of Iran and the Freedom Movement of Iran.

The election is seen as the first in a series of electoral victories for the conservatives, followed by the 2004 legislative election and the 2005 presidential election. Historian Ervand Abrahamian attributes the result to the conservatives retaining their 25% voter base, while "large numbers of women, college students, and other members of the salaried middle class stayed home".

Voter turnout fell to 12% in this election.

This election also marked rise of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to national prominence, because he was subsequently elected as the Mayor of Tehran and his profile was raised for his presidential campaign in 2005.

Campaign

Conservatives

Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran

Mayoral nominee: Not declared Campaign manager: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Listed candidates

1 Mehdi Chamran 2 Abbas Sheybani 3 Nader Shariatmadari 4 Hassan Bayadi 5 Hassan Ziari 6 Habib Kashani 7 Mahmoud Khosravi-Vafa 8 Hamzeh Shakib 9 Khosro Daneshjou 10 Masoud Zaribafan 11 Amir Reza Vaezi-Ashtiani 12 Nasrin Soltankhah 13 Manzar Khayyer-Habibollahi 14 Mahnoush Motamedi-Azar 15 Mohammad-Mehdi Mazaheri-Tehrani

Most of the figures from the conservative camp sat out of the election and did not enroll as a candidate.

The faction put forward one single list under the banner of the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran (ABII), an alliance between old guard conservatives and new forces within the faction. The ABII billed themselves as technocrats with the expertise to run the city while key conservative parties and organizations kept a low-profile during the days leading to the election. No conservative party released candidate lists for the election.

Islamic Coalition Party's leading member Hamidreza Taraghi told press: "Our campaign policy is not to publish any statements or posters... we do not wish to politicize the situation... we are trying not to support those individuals who have greater political inclination than professional expertise".

Campaign manager of the ABII during the elections was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The campaign focused on calling for members of Basij and their families to vote for the group. In one newspaper ad, many ABII members appeared clean-shaven like their reformist rivals, in order to display technological seriousness.

Reformists

Islamic Iran Participation Front

Mayoral nominee: Mohsen Safaei Farahani

Listed Candidates

1 Mostafa Tajzadeh 2 Alireza Rajaei 3 Hossein Zaman 4 Mojtaba Badi'i 5 Fariba Davoudi-Mohajer 6 Davoud Asgari 7 Ahmad Mousazadeh 8 Hamid Majedi 9 Majid Farahani 10 Nastaran Nassiri 11 Amir Mansouri 12 Majid Shafipour 13 Taghi Nourbakhsh 14 Mohammadreza Behzadian 15 Nahid Jalali

Source: ISNA

Executives of Construction Party

Mayoral nominee: Gholamhossein Karbaschi

Listed candidates (incomplete)

Gholamreza Ghobbeh Abolghassem Ashouri Kamal Aziminia Mohsen Vaheb Mahmoud Alizadeh-Tabatabaei Mohammadreza Behzadian Rasoul Khadem Hengameh Shahidi Ali-Asghar Negarandeh

Source: Jamejam Online, ISNA

The Reformists who supported the incumbent President Mohammad Khatami, entered the elections divided. They had engaged an inter-factional rivalry, possibly out of overconfidence that they will win the election. In January, disagreements were reported between 2nd of Khordad coalition members over compiling a shared list of candidates.

Association of Combatant Clerics (ACC) declared that it would not issue a list for itself, but will endorse a list of candidates if all reformist parties and organizations reach an agreement.

As the reformist parties were involved with infighting, student organizations and journalists who had played an important in mobilizing voters to support the reformists in previous elections were either silent or withdrew their support from the camp. The Office for Strengthening Unity (OSU) released a statement and declared that it is not supporting the reformists because they were not actually addressing people's concerns.

Unified Front of 2nd of Khordad

Mayoral nominee: Not declared

Coalition members

Islamic Iran Solidarity Party Islamic Labour Party Islamic Association of Engineers of Iran Assembly of the Forces of Imam's Line

Listed candidates

1 Ebrahim Asgharzadeh 2 Elaheh Rastgou 3 Ahmad Hakimipour 4 Rahmatollah Khosravi 5 Mohammad-Ali Rahmani 6 Fayyaz Zahed 7 Mohsen Sorkhou 8 Hassan Sadeghi 9 Latif Safari 10 Davoud Asgari 11 Mohsen Ghamsari 12 Morteza Lotfi 13 Hassan Mokhtari 14 Karim Malek-Asa 15 Mohammadreza Bahmaei

Source: ISNA, ISNA

List of Reformist Journalists

1 Mostafa Tajzadeh 2 Ebrahim Asgharzadeh 3 Ahmad Hakimipour 4 Ali-Asghar Negarandeh 5 Nikahang Kowsar 6 Morteza Lotfi 7 Hengameh Shahidi 8 Omid Memarian 9 Mohammadreza Karimi 10 Fariba Davoudi-Mohajer 11 Saeed Razavi-Faqih 12 Latif Safari 13 Alireza Rajaei 14 Behrouz Behzadi 15 Fayyaz Zahedi

Source: ISNA

On 19 February 2003, Ali-Mohammad Gharbiani of election headquarters of the 2nd of Khordad coalition said that names of 33 candidates has been compiled for 15 spots on the final list. However, not every party agreed that all names should be on the list.

Major disagreements were reported in media between the Executives of Construction Party (ECP) and the Islamic Iran Solidarity Party (IISP). It was also reported that the latter had threatened that it would not be part of the coalition if its secretary-general Ebrahim Asgharzadeh is not included. Asgharzadeh had recently made negative remarks about Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF), a leading party in the coalition, which led to resignation of some IISP members in protest. On the other hand, Majid Farahani of the IIPF said his party will reconsider participation in the coalition if certain candidates are included in the list.

Due to differences of opinion being continued between these parties, each of the ECP, the IIPF and the IISF released separate candidate lists.

ECP campaign presented their candidates as "pragmatic "professionals" who can deliver better city services and end partisan bickering".

According to The Economist, the "star candidate" of the reformist camp was Mostafa Tajzadeh who belonged to the IIPF list. Analysts expected that the party would show poorly.

Religious-Nationalists

Friends of Bazargan, Taleghani, Sahabi

Leader: Ebrahim Yazdi

Listed Candidates

1 Abolfazl Bazargan 2 Mohammad Tavasoli 3 Mohammad-Hossein Baniasadi 4 Gholam-Abbas Tavassoli 5 Hassan Farid-Alam 6 Khosrow Mansourian 7 Amir Khorram 8 Majid Hakimi 9 Tahereh Taleghani 10 Alireza Rajaei 11 Mohammad-Javad Mozaffar 12 Fariba Davoudi-Mohajer 13 Saeed Razavi-Faqih 14 Leila Liaghat

Source: ISNA

Council of Nationalist-Religious Activists

Leader: Ezzatollah Sahabi

Listed Candidates

1 Mohammad Tavasoli 2 Mohammad-Hassan Shahidi 3 Mohammad-Hossein Baniasadi 4 Abolfazl Bazargan 5 Hassan Farid-Alam 6 Mostafa Tajzadeh 7 Latif Safari 8 Khosrow Mansourian 9 Mohammad-Javad Mozaffar 10 Alireza Rajaei 11 Mojtaba Badi'i 12 Mostafa Izadi 13 Issa Saharkhiz 14 Ahmad Mousazadeh

Source: ISNA

Members of liberal opposition groups based inside Iran declared themselves candidates for the election. Due to the local elections being exempt from Guardian Council vetting process, the dissidents were allowing to run by the reformist-dominated election board in Tehran.

Among the groups were the Freedom Movement of Iran (FMI) and the Council of Nationalist-Religious Activists. The former issued a statement urging the voters to show up for the election, which said: "those not supporting the municipal elections are, in fact, against the council-oriented system of government and against democracy and the reform process".

Since the 1980s, the faction was banned from running for elections and their freedom to run was harshly criticized by the conservatives. A court sent a letter to the election board, calling the groups and their qualification illegal.

Society of Women of the Islamic Revolution

Leader: Azam Taleghani

Listed Candidates

1 Alireza Rajaei 2 Hossein Ahmadi 3 Mostafa Izadi 4 Mojtaba Badi'i 5 Mostafa Tajzadeh 6 Mohammad Tavasoli 7 Issa Saharkhiz 8 Mohammad-Hassan Shahidi 9 Tahereh Taleghani 10 Hassan Farid-Alam 11 Saeid Madani 12 Marzieh Mortazi-Langeroudi 13 Khosrow Mansourian 14 Hamid Nouhi 15 Zohreh Aghajari (withdrew)

Source: ISNA

Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader, slammed "irregularities" in qualifying members of the groups and said the elections would be invalidated if they won.

Campaign for Mohsen Sazegara

See also: National Coalition of Freedom-Seekers

Mohsen Sazegara who had been disillusioned with the reformists and tried to run in the 2001 presidential election against the incumbent President Mohammad Khatami (being disqualified by the Guardian Council), was jailed at the time of the election and in protest conducted a hunger strike. In the election, a list of fifteen liberals was announced by friends of Sazegara, led by one of his brothers, pledging to appoint Sazegara as the next mayor if they were elected. They printed big pictures of Sazegara and installed them on almost every major street in the city. Sazegara was soon released from imprisonment.

American conservative analyst Joshua Muravchik attributes release of Sazegara to the campaign, which caused the authorities "fearing that this might attract a large protest vote".

National Coalition of Freedom-Seekers

Mayoral nominee: Mohsen Sazegara

Listed candidates (incomplete)

Saeid Haghi Mehdi Sazegara Mohsen Vaheb Gholamhossein Khorshidi Alireza Rajaei

Source: ISNA

Results

#	Candidate	Affiliation		Votes	%
↓ Sitting Members ↓
1	Mehdi Chamran		Alliance of Builders	192,716	36.57
2	Abbas Sheybani		Alliance of Builders	178,351	33.84
3	Nader Shariatmadari		Alliance of Builders	104,147	19.76
4	Hassan Bayadi		Alliance of Builders	103,150	19.57
5	Hassan Ziari		Alliance of Builders	100,454	19.06
6	Habib Kashani		Alliance of Builders	99,013	18.78
7	Mahmoud Khosravivafa		Alliance of Builders	98,390	18.67
8	Hamzeh Shakib		Alliance of Builders	98,313	18.65
9	Khosro Daneshjou		Alliance of Builders	98,291	18.65
10	Masoud Zaribafan		Alliance of Builders	95,971	18.21
11	Rasoul Khadem		Independent	92,606	17.57
12	Amir Reza Vaezi-Ashtiani		Alliance of Builders	90,832	17.24
13	Nasrin Soltankhah		Alliance of Builders	90,029	17.08
14	Manzar Khayyer-Habibollahi		Alliance of Builders	87,690	16.64
15	Mahnoush Motamedi-Azar		Alliance of Builders	85,839	16.29
↓ Alternate Members ↓
16	Mostafa Tajzadeh		Reformist	66,196	12.56
17	Mohammad-Mehdi Mazaheri-Tehrani		Alliance of Builders	54,616	10.36
18	Abolghassem Ashouri		Reformist	51,492	9.77
19	Ebrahim Asgharzadeh		Reformist	45,519	8.36
20	Mehdi Ghasemi-Kajani		Independent	41,844	7.94
21	Alireza Rajaei		Nationalist-Religious	36,078	6.84
↓ Defeated ↓
22	Gholamreza Ghobbeh		Reformist	35,998	6.83
23	Abolfazl Bazargan		Nationalist-Religious	34,642	6.57
24	Fariba Davoudi-Mohajer		Reformist	32,867	6.24
25	Mohammadreza Behzadian		Reformist	32,229	6.11
26	Ali Fathollahzadeh		Independent	31,633	6.00
27	Latif Safari		Reformist	29,960	5.68
28	Seyyed Mansour Razavi		Reformist	28,588	5.42
29	Amir Abedini		Independent	27,782	5.27
30	Gholam-Abbas Tavassoli		Nationalist-Religious	26,226	4.98
31	Tahereh Taleghani		Nationalist-Religious	23,597	4.48
32	Hamid Majedi		Reformist	23,058	4.37
33	Hossein Zaman		Reformist	22,156	4.20
34	Mohammad Tavasoli		Nationalist-Religious	21,922	4.16
35	Mojtaba Badi'i		Reformist	21,689	4.11
36	Mahmoud Alizadeh-Tabatabaei		Reformist	20,981	3.98
37	Tahereh Taherian		Independent	20,871	3.96
38	Mohammad-Hossein Doroudian		Reformist	19,933	3.78
39	Kamal Aziminia		Reformist	19,532	3.71
40	Saeed Razavi-Faqih		Nationalist-Religious	19,149	3.63
41	Elaheh Rastgou		Reformist	19,015	3.61
42	Mohammad-Hossein Baniasadi		Nationalist-Religious	18,781	3.56
43	Davoud Asgari		Reformist	18,474	3.51
44	Ahmad Hakimipour		Reformist	18,272	3.47
45	Ahmad Mousazadeh		Reformist	17,645	3.35
46	Leila Liaghat		Nationalist-Religious	16,926	3.21
47	Mostafa Izadi		Nationalist-Religious	16,784	3.18
48	Hassan Farid-Alam		Nationalist-Religious	16,620	3.15
49	Hengameh Shahidi		Reformist	17,584	3.34
50	Morteza Lotfi		Reformist	16,082	3.05
51	Mohammad-Javad Mozaffar		Nationalist-Religious	15,943	3.03
53	Seyyed Amir Mansouri		Reformist	15,809	3.00
53	Nahid Jalali		Reformist	15,751	2.99
54	Majid Shafipour-Motlagh		Reformist	15,438	2.93
55	Nastaran Nassiri		Reformist	14,846	2.82
56	Omid Memarian		Reformist	14,680	2.79
57	Mir Ali-Asghar Negarandeh		Reformist	14,037	2.66
58	Majid Farahani		Reformist	13,725	2.60
59	Hamzeh Karami		Reformist	13,664	2.59
60	Mahmoud Amanpour-Gharaei		Independent	13,257	2.52
61	Mohsen Saberi-Qomi		Independent	12,735	2.42
62	Khosrow Mansourian		Nationalist-Religious	12,719	2.41
63	Shahram Salmasi-Javid		Independent	12,608	2.39
64	Seyyed Taghi Nourbakhsh		Reformist	12,095	2.30
65	Mohammad-Mehdi Sazegara		Reformist	10,590	2.01
66	Issa Saharkhiz		Reformist	10,445	1.98
67	Mohsen Sorkhou		Reformist	9,489	1.80
68	Amir Khorram		Nationalist-Religious	9,239	1.75
69	Rahmatollah Khosravi		Reformist	8,842	1.68
70	Majid Hakimi		Nationalist-Religious	8,491	1.61
Invalid/blank votes				35,550	6.31
Total Votes				562,522	100
Source: Ettela'at International (1 Archived 2017-09-01 at the Wayback Machine 2)